Bundt Cake #16 of Bundt Cake Season 3: Cabernet Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Red Wine Glaze

OK. Bundt Cake Season 3 has to be wrapped up! This has gotten ridiculous. I'm going to make the publishing date for this post (and the final BCS3 one) so that they fall with the rest of the cakes from this season. Let's hope that once I get caught up on BCS4, I stay on track! Sheesh.

My Mom came to visit me in May. I had had surgery at the beginning of the month and was still in recovery mode. While she was here, I definitely wanted to make sure we made a bundt cake together. Which also meant that I got to use my new bundt pan! Wheee! I handed her the various bundt cookbooks, and after identifying a couple that she wanted to try, we decided on the Cabernet Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Glaze from Kiss My Bundt.

Originally, I thought that we'd make the cake sometime on Saturday, but we ran out of time

(what with seeing Bridesmaids and the fact that I was taking two-hour naps as part of my recovery). Luckily, her flight out on Sunday wasn't too early, so we whipped up the cake that morning. Which worked out well, because it provided the perfect opportunity to use up the leftover strawberry champagne from the previous week's Strawberry Champagne Mini Bundts by making strawberry mimosas! Doesn't everyone like to drink and bake?

This cake actually has two toppings. In addition to the delicious Blackberry Red Wine Glaze, it also calls for either a chocolate glaze or chocolate ganache. I asked my mom which she wanted to make, and she decided on the glaze. Next time, I'd definitely go for the ganache instead. In part, I think that my new bundt pan doesn't lend itself well to glazes, because the sharp ridges don't offer the glaze much to cling to. But also, the blackberry red wine glaze does a nice job of soaking into the cake a bit, but the chocolate one just kind of ran off, whereas, a ganache, which is thicker would stick better to the cake, and then you'd get the full benefit of the chocolate flavor. Also? I used maybe a third of the chocolate glaze (the rest has been sitting in my fridge forever. I keep tasting it, and it's still good, I just haven't found a use for it yet).

The cake itself was deliciously moist and chocolatey. And that Blackberry Red Wine Glaze? So delicious! I think it was my favorite thing about the cake. I should definitely find other uses for it, so I have an excuse to make it in the future.

Here's the recipe:

Cabernet Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 cups flour

3/4 cup high-fat cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup whole milk (I used 1% as usual, since that's what I have on hand)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup Cabernet Sauvignon (or other dry red wine) (I used a Spanish red we had, it worked well.)

Cake directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

With the mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients to the wet, 1/2 cup at a time. Do this slowly so that the batter doesn't develop clumps. (Do not overmix.)

Combine the water and wine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

Slowly mix boiled water & wine mixture into the batter. Note: the batter will be thin.

Transfer batter to cake pan that has been coated with baker's cooking spray. Filing it 3/4 full.

Bake care until an inserted toothpick or cake tester come out clean - about 45 minutes for a regular bundt pan.

Invert cake onto a cooling rack or serving plate. If cake resists, cool in the pan for 15 minutes before trying again. If the cake still resists, cool in the pan for an additional 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting, at least an hour.

Drizzle blackberry glaze (recipe below) over the cooled chocolate cake.

Pour warm chocolate ganache or chocolate glaze (recipe below) over blackberry glazed cake.

This is the cake sans either glaze.

Blackberry Red Wine Glaze

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons seedless blackberry fruit spread or preserves

1/3 cup Cabernet Sauvignon (or other dry red wine)

Directions:

In a small saucepan, whisk wine and blackberry preserves over medium heat.

Once incorporated, bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute (this helps thicken the glaze).

Remove from heat and let mixture cool for 3 minutes.

Spoon over chocolate cake.

Dark Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter

6 ounces premium dark chocolate finely chopped or grated (I used dark chocolate chips)

2 tablespoons corn syrup

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter.

Remove pan from heat and mix chocolate into the butter, stirring until chocolate is completely melted.

Add corn syrup and whisk to a smooth glaze.

Let the mixture sit for 1 or 2 minutes to allow glaze to thicken slightly before drizzling over cake.

Bundt Cake # 10 of Bundt Cake Season 3: Orange/Chocolate Marble Cake

My fourth entry for BCS3 was, sadly, a bit of a disappointment. I was very excited for my first marble bundt, but alas and alack, it was not all I'd hoped for. The marble turned out fine (if somewhat simple, since the recipe did not instruct me to do the swirly knife thing--I'm definitely doing that next time), which was great. But there were a couple of disappointing aspects to the cake. I think there were a couple of reasons for this, which lead me to believe that a second attempt at some time in the future will lead to greater success. See, the main problem was that the cake was a little dense and dry--and not as flavourful as I would like.

I think part of the too-dense issue had to do with the state of the butter. Unfortunately, although I had taken the butter out to soften, I hadn't really taken into consideration the fact that our kitchen tends to be cold, therefore room temperature there is not really what is meant by "room temperature" when dealing with butter. So, when I beat the butter for the cake, I don't think it got light and fluffy enough, which in turn, lead to a denser cake.

The other issue was the chocolate flavor in the chocolate part of the marble. It wasn't really chocolate-y enough. (And after that delicious Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake, I had high standards.) At the time, I only had Hershey's cocoa, which is not as awesome as the fancy Dutch processed cocoa I now own (thanks to my friend, Katie). This less-than-fabulous cocoa, was also an issue when I made the chocolate glaze for the cake.

So, the moral of this story is: I think it would probably be tasty with properly softened butter and good quality cocoa.

The recipe is from the Bundt Cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs separated

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

1/4 tsp grated orange peel***

1/4 orange extract*

1/4 cup cocoa**

1/4 cup water

* Since I didn't have orange extract, I used Grand Marnier instead--so feel free to use the orange liqueur of your choice, if, you too, do not have orange extract.

** As noted above, I recommend springing for the Dutch processed cocoa.

*** I think I may have added more orange peel than this, so that the batter had the level of orange flavor I was looking for.

Directions:

Cream butter; add sugar gradually, beating until fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until light and fluffy.

Add sifted flour, baking powder, and salt, a third at a time, alternating with milk, until blended.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Spoon half the batter into a second bowl; stir in orange peel and orange extract (or orange liqueur).

Blend cocoa and water in a cup: fold into batter in first bowl.

Spoon batters, alternating layers of chocolate and orange, at least two times into a greased and floured 10 0r 12 cup bundt pan. (This is where you might want to get fancy and swirl the layers together using a knife.)

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until cake tests done.

Cool in pan 10-15 minutes.

Turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling.

Top with Chocolate or Orange Glaze

As you can see, the directions call for topping with *either* Chocolate or Orange glaze, but I thought that was silly, when you could top it with both glazes and have two delicious flavors! I made a half batch of each, and drizzled the cake with first the orange glaze and then the chocolate glaze (giving the orange glaze a little time to "set" while I made the chocolate one).

Orange Glaze:

(this is a half recipe, since I was using two glazes)

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 tbsp soft butter

2-4 tbsp orange juice

1-2 tsp grated orange peel

In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add orange juice gradually to achieve desired consistency, and stir until smooth.

Chocolate Glaze:

(again, this is a half recipe, since I was using two glazes)

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 tbsp soft butter

1/4 tsp vanilla

2-4 tbsp milk

1 tbsp cocoa powder

In a small bowl, combine sugar, cocoa, and butter. Add vanilla. Add milk gradually to achieve desired consistency, and stir until smooth.